Does anyone know anything about routers?

t4tomo

I have a Netgear wireless router that must be at least 6 years old. It used to work hunky dory.

Recently our laptiops have been struggling to "find" teh router when they boot up and when you cick for available networks it isn't shown. Sometimes switching the router off and waiting a while then turning it back on will solve the problem, as sometimes does logging onto the router and "refreshing" the access list of PC's that can log on (although the lap tops are always shown on this list.

Anyone know what the issue may be, or it it just the router is past its sellby date.

If the latter, can anyone recommend a decent value reliable router for small home network - nothing flash.

UndercoverElephant

Have you tried turning it off and turning it on again?

Kieran_Burns

You'll probably find you're using the same channel as someone nearby (it'll be set to auto most likely)

Manually work your way through the available channels until you find one that gives the best signal.

Try this in the evening when everyone around you is using their home wireless network, so you find a free one.

t4tomo

UndercoverElephant wrote:

Have you tried turning it off and turning it on again?

{cough} "......Sometimes switching the router off and waiting a while then turning it back on will solve the problem....." {cough}

Kieran - channels sounds a good idea - will that be somewhere in the menu when I log onto the router via the interweb? Daft quetsion but I assume your PC looks for all channels - I won't need to change anything on them? (Its not like remote control cars and selecting wireless channels?)

Ian.B

I had a Netgear (wired) router for about 5 years and then started to keep losing the internet connection. There was nothing obviously wrong with the router - all the lights were flashing, and I'd assumed a router was the sort of thing with no moving parts which goes on for ever, but eventually it turned out the router had gone faulty and the answer was a new (wireless) router.

t4tomo

what's the difference between wired and wireless - I connect mine to one laptop / pc with a network cable, and then any others can be picked up wireless in different rooms - does taht make it wireless?

davmaggs

Ian.B wrote:

I had a Netgear (wired) router for about 5 years and then started to keep losing the internet connection. There was nothing obviously wrong with the router - all the lights were flashing, and I'd assumed a router was the sort of thing with no moving parts which goes on for ever, but eventually it turned out the router had gone faulty and the answer was a new (wireless) router.

If your home connection was with o2/Be they had a phase of doing something to their n/w that broke Netgear routers right down in the depth of how they send data. Can't remember the details, but it was maddening at the time and I almost binned the Netgear until I came across some forums. I flashed the router with different firmware (dgteam) and all was well.

OP; does the wireless connection get dropped to all users at the same time?

The reason that I ask is that Vista had a habit of randomly dropping wireless whilst other machines carried on fine. It therefore wasn't the router.

t4tomo

Its usually one out all out (although quite often 1 laptop is cable connected to the router as it normally used in the study), but when I've disconnect that if the other is playing up, it doesn't want to work wirelssly either..

Were on tiscali / talk talk so you're O2 theory prob not appropriate. In any event flashing my router might not be appropriate as the study window is very visible from the road, and I live in a respectable cul de sac and all that, I'd hate to upset the neighbours.

ADonmall

TBH if you have got 5 years out of it replacing it isnt such a bad idea. Any Wireless ADSL router should do.

sketchley

t4tomo wrote:

I have a Netgear wireless router

That's your problem right there.

sketchley

ADonmall wrote:

TBH if you have got 5 years out of it replacing it isnt such a bad idea. Any Wireless ADSL router should do.

Ask your ISP for free one, if not change ISP.

Ian.B

davmaggs wrote:

I flashed the router with different firmware (dgteam) and all was well.

Way beyond my understanding. I just binned mine.

t4tomo

Sketchley wrote:

t4tomo wrote:

I have a Netgear wireless router

That's your problem right there.

Expand - I thought netgear were a decent reliable brand. My old IT director recommended it at the time I think.

EKE_38BPM

[thread hijack]
@ADonmall, any news on that bike? I'm getting grief from the potential owner. Check your PM.
Cheers
[/thread hijack]

Kieran_Burns

just checking around and the suggestion is that you pick channel 1

There's only 1, 6 and 11 worth trying - as to how you set it - it depends on your router (I reckon it'll be the DG834G

This: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detai ... 34-routers will show you how - note the channel number shown in the second image.

Oh, you might want to set the link speed - auto can cause issues as well

UndercoverElephant

If you have access to an Android phone, I can recommend "WiFi Analyser" from the Marketplace as a great way to see exactly what channels are least used. It's free as well.

sketchley

t4tomo wrote:

Sketchley wrote:

t4tomo wrote:

I have a Netgear wireless router

That's your problem right there.

Expand - I thought netgear were a decent reliable brand. My old IT director recommended it at the time I think.

That's the problem they are a good "brand" so people recommend them.

Personal experience is that Netgear Wireless Routers work well with Netgear Wireless Adapters and cards. Try anything else and they become a nightmare, which would indicate propritary protcols are running on them. My last one would connect to my Dell laptop unless encryption was WEP, but at the same time wouldn't connect to Sony PSP unless encryption for WPA. In the finish I turned off wireless bit of router and then deployed an old Dell wireless access point from the office that cost £10. Worked perfectly with full WPA encryption. However it would randomly loose all connectivity and only reboot if you unplugged all the network cables.

Recently upgraded to a CISCO / Linksys small business router, performance is better just. Although it there appear to be a fault with this as my PC and Router are detected fine by the built in switch but NAS box and PS3 don't. Very odd. Also performance between PC plug in directly and NAS box plugged into switch then into Cicso was rubbish. Plugging the PC into the switch sloved this. Which made it look like packet inspection was taking place between internal connections!

t4tomo

Kieran_Burns wrote:

just checking around and the suggestion is that you pick channel 1

There's only 1, 6 and 11 worth trying - as to how you set it - it depends on your router (I reckon it'll be the DG834G

This: http://kb.netgear.com/app/answers/detai ... 34-routers will show you how - note the channel number shown in the second image.

Oh, you might want to set the link speed - auto can cause issues as well

Thanksfor that, I'll give that a whirl and yes I think it is that one - screen shots certainly look like it - uncanny althoyugh I think it was the ebst selling router in its day.

Zachariah

Someone nearby, as Kieran has suggested, might well have just bought a more powerful transmitter which is effectively jamming your signal.

Find it and destroy it!

sketchley

Zachariah wrote:

Someone nearby, as Kieran has suggested, might well have just bought a more powerful transmitter which is effectively jamming your signal.

Find it and destroy it!

Hack it and use it? :twisted:

sampras38

Personally I would start by rebooting the router, and then as a previous posted has already suggested, try another channel. That's what I did when a previous Belkin router of mine started playing up and the problem vanished.

nickthetrick

Not sure if anyone has already posted this, but here's an excellent free channel analyser which I use:

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

I also have a netgear router which can be very tempramental - turning off and on usually sorts things out. I also seem to have probs with the router-ISP connection (Virgin) which can be infuriating. I phoned up Virgin at new year and they fobbed me off with various tests I had to do before they'd look into it. But strangely the service got a lot better after that call (and nothing to do with the tests), so i think they realised there was an issue - they seemed to have a log of all the times I'd been requesting IP addresses (like once every 10 mins as it kept falling over).

You can try checking for FW updates on the netgear website too!

tgotb

nickthetrick wrote:

Not sure if anyone has already posted this, but here's an excellent free channel analyser which I use:

http://www.metageek.net/products/inssider/

+1. Definitely do this; this will make it very obvious whether you have interference issues.

Also note that, despite there bring a bunch of channels, Wifi signals tend to stray into adjacent channels, so there are only three you should really consider using. The Inssider documentation explains it much more clearly than I could, and once you start running the program it will be obvious.

t4tomo

Thanks Kieron - switched to channel 1 and its working fine.

SimonAH

I've got a really nice Makita router with loads of bits, used it last night as it happens, I was making a ladder for my daughter's bunk-bed. Oh, wait..

cee

Sketchley wrote:

That's the problem they are a good "brand" so people recommend them.

Personal experience is that Netgear Wireless Routers work well with Netgear Wireless Adapters and cards. Try anything else and they become a nightmare, which would indicate propritary protcols are running on them.

Nope....it either conforms to the 802.11 IEEE standard....or it doesn't get certified....

not a protocol issue....

moving into the 802.11 draft n stuff gets a bit more tricky....as the protocol standard is still in draft....i.e. not yet finalised...so there may be some issue with how the manufacturer has interpreted that....but again....even the draft standard is certified...so again...probably not a protocol issue...

more likely is the software networking stack on the various client machines....which ARE proprietery, can give very different levels of perfromance....and often cause issues.

On a new machine...the first thing I always do is get rid of the bundled manufacturers networking stack...and just use the stack from the OS.....

That has always solved the issues you describe....however...with things like a PSP...its awkward...

The iPad network stack is my recent pet hate.

ta.

C

t4tomo

Damn my thread has been hijacked into a nerd war.

SimonAH

t4tomo wrote:

Damn my thread has been hijacked into a nerd war.

Awsome! We can get that guy from Red Dwarf to adjudicate!

rolf_f

SimonAH wrote:

I've got a really nice Makita router with loads of bits, used it last night as it happens, I was making a ladder for my daughter's bunk-bed. Oh, wait..

That's what I was thinking........

moffatt666

If you're still having issues, I have a Thompson b/g modem router you can have (free!).

tgotb

Anyone recommend a decent collet extender? Needs to have either 8mm or 1/4" shaft, and 1/4" collet...